Mike Myers hasn’t been much of a big-screen presence lately, but with a new Shrek movie on the way, it’s no surprise that he’s looking to revive some of his other previously popular characters, like Austin Powers. Myers made a big transition from Saturday Night Live to the big screen when Wayne’s World, based on the SNL sketch, became a massive hit, spawning a successful sequel, and inspiring many, much worse sketch-based movies. With Austin Powers, Myers created a new character that caught on; with Shrek, he utilized the fake Scottish accent he often did on TV and became a family film icon. He pushed his luck a bit with an overly annoying take on The Cat in the Hat, and the unfunny, outdated brownface of The Love Guru.
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Having overreached with broad, comedic creations, he has mostly been seen lately onscreen in smaller character bits, playing record executives in both Bohemian Rhapsody and Michael (when he isn’t guest-appearing on SNL as Elon Musk). Nostalgia is a powerful thing, though, and in a recent appearance on the Hollywood Insiders With Hawk Koch podcast, he discussed his plan to bring back the International Man of Mystery for the previously confirmed Austin Powers 4.
Austin Powers 4 Will Be More From Dr. Evil’s Point of View
Myers revealed that in talking with fans, he finds there’s about a 50-50 division between people who prefer Austin Powers as a character versus those who prefer Dr. Evil (no word on those who prefer Fat Bastard or Goldmember, but we’ll assume they’re less popular). Austin is a colorful parody of ’60s movie super-spies, while Dr. Evil is more or less a Lorne Michaels impersonation, in Donald Pleasance’s You Only Live Twice wardrobe and makeup. Dr. Evil got about equal time in The Spy Who Shagged Me, as he negotiated fatherhood with son Scott (Seth Green) and small clone Mini-Me (Verne Troyer). Goldmember back-benched him a bit in favor of the titular new arch-villain, also played by Myers.
“One of the craziest things is one of the first studio notes that, after a screening (of the original) was, ‘Less Dr. Evil, people don’t like him because he’s mean to Austin.’” Myers said. “And I go, ehhh, it got laughs. I mean, I don’t think it’s one of those movies where it’s bad guys, good guys. So that was the one I had to kind of navigate through.” Now that the studio note has been defiantly proven wrong, with Evil every bit as quotable as Austin, Myers is writing the new script with a focus on the bad Doctor. “It’s more from Dr. Evil’s point of view so far. And yeah, it’s a very fun character to do.”
Austin Powers: International Man of Mystery depicted both main characters as men out of time, cryogenically preserved in 1967 to be thawed out in 1997. The central joke was that characters from the ’60s would seem ridiculous in the ’90s. However, if Austin Powers 4 is to make a release date next year, in 2027, it will have been the same amount of time again, since the first film — thirty years. Do the ’90s look so ridiculous now? Haven’t Austin and Dr. Evil had time to adapt by now? Instead of making us feel horny, Austin might just make us feel old. Maybe that will be a central joke this time.
Will you throw Mike Myers a frickin’ bone and watch the sequel if it happens? Swing on down to comments and sound off.
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Image Courtesy of Sony Pictures Releasing
